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Katowice25012 Posts
Richard Lewis spoke to Robert Ohlen this week about his recent departure from DreamHack and and the organization's restructuring.
Robert Ohlén is one of the most recognizable businessmen in esports. Outspoken, gregarious and with an acute understanding of gaming culture, he was the charismatic face of one of esports true success stories: DreamHack.
In 2006, he took a gamble and purchased the gaming event from its two young founders. Under his stewardship, DreamHack continued to grow and break records year upon year. Its events have made it the biggest LAN in the world—records set to be smashed again when it hosts its 20th anniversary event next month. Ohlén, however, won’t be playing any part in those celebrations. After nearly a decade building the company, he's out, “relieved of his duties” on Oct. 24. The move represents a major power shift at the top of one of the most important and influential esports organizations in Europe—and on a more personal level, Ohlén's likely departure from the esports industry as a whole.
When we speak on Monday, he cuts a pretty dejected figure. It’s easy to see even across a pixelated Skype call that there are bags under his eyes. He's shaved off his trademark beard, but he looks older somehow. Ohlén and I have known each other for five years, and I've worked at DreamHack events as a coverage journalist. We've become firm friends. Which is part of why I was the only journalist he was willing to speak to.
We exchange some small talk. When a natural pause occurs, I put on my interviewer's voice and he sparks a cigarette. Then with a hoarse, strained voice he tells where all the drama started. It began in 2009, he says, when his then partner in the company David Garpenståhl, tried to "oust" him.
"That came out of the blue and I had to conclude he was, as you Brits might put it, a bit of a nutter." For what Ohlén calls "tactical, legal reasons," he gave away all his shares—50 percent of DreamHack—to his father. "I did this with the tacit understanding that the shares would be returned to me as soon as the difficulties subsided. Those troubles ended two years ago.”
Ohlén had weathered the storm, giving him his first harsh lesson about the business – “trust nobody.” Unfortunately, what he didn't realize was that this same lesson would soon extend to his immediate family.
He discusses the lengthy legal battle he's had with his own family regarding shares of the company and the internal struggles that go on from within. His side of the story is that his stepping down from CEO was planned but something happened to the process and he was completely ousted without support, and kicked from the entity entirely. He also expresses regret for the tone his tweets took, denouncing the company as a whole.
You can read the full interview here.
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Who knows really though? Maybe Dreamhack will actually get better now that he's been removed from the picture. Obviously Dreamhack had their reasons to get rid of him, and even if he felt that it was done unfairly, he still got five years to run the show at one of the biggest esports companies on the planet.
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That is pretty sad, but I am sure his father had his own reasons for what he did. Removing people from their job is hard, especially in the era of twitter. I'm sure the man will be fine, but not a way I would want to go out.
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he gave away all his shares—50 percent of DreamHack
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This is pretty sad to read. It's hard to really know what is going on. There are two sides to every story and from reading this it feels like more than ever the other side probably isn't going to see things the same way.
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The guy built Dreamhack, was one of the best guests on The GD Studio, and his father is not a person that deserves the title of father anymore. Good luck to him, I hope he can find another job that gives him the confidence and position to embarrass the people who robbed him.
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I agree maybe other employees of Dreamhack probably have some legitimate claims too, but anyone who says his father had good reasons for robbing his own son needs to sober up.
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Magic Woods9326 Posts
I have no inside knowledge at all so it's hard to say what's actually going on here. In this article they mention:
It began in 2009, he says, when his then partner in the company David Garpenståhl, tried to "oust" him.
It sounds like David was the one at fault.
In another article I read on fragbite paints the whole story in a whole different perspective. In that article the Ohlén family seemed to be the bad guys.
I have a hard time sympathizing with anyone in this situation. Robert's dad is the only one to have been constantly accused though.
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Northern Ireland22208 Posts
So what was his father thinking...
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On October 30 2014 01:51 ahswtini wrote:
So what was his father thinking...
I have literally no idea, unless his father was somehow involved with the business as well. I get the feeling that we are only getting a very small part of that story. I don't excuse the behavior, but there may be a part of Robert that we don't know and maybe his father felt some loyalty to the employees.
I have literally zero idea why people think transferring massive amounts of money to family members is a good idea. There are literally 20 different ways to protect your interests that don't involve putting your trust in a single person. Family member or not, its a terrible idea. Money ruins families.
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Man the whole situation just sucks, I always really liked Robert and how they did Dreamhack so its really sad to see him go  the worst thing though is being betrayed by his father, I mean that just makes it hard to have faith in people when your own dad screws you over.
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Pretty sure his father is independently wealthy through Real Estate. Perhaps he became 'greedy' and wanted to keep the shares Robert handed over but I have a feeling there are other reasons. Perhaps the Father lost confidence in his son's abilities to have 50% stake. In the public eye, I've always adored Robert and all around this situation feels extremely shitty for everyone involved but I wish we could get the Father's side.
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Please link this to the sc2 forums as well. It is just as relevant there and this story needs a thread of its own and not an updated post that nobody pays attention to anymore.
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A sad story regardless of who is the bad guy. Being screwed over by your father sucks but let's be honest, giving over that much money to family is always risky and you never know what could happen. I hope Robert stays sane and stable and doesn't lose faith in everything, he's a great guy and it would be a shame to lose him in e-sports.
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On October 30 2014 01:17 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
This is pretty sad to read. It's hard to really know what is going on. There are two sides to every story and from reading this it feels like more than ever the other side probably isn't going to see things the same way.
I like to think of it as 3 parts to every story: their side, your side, and the truth.
I am honestly a little shocked by all of this. Mostly by the part where Roberts father refused to return shares to his son. I just couldn't imagine not being able to trust my own family. That said I wish Mr. Ohlen the best and hope he decides to stay involved in eSports in some capacity, because he was incredible at running Dreamhack.
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It's hard for me to make heads or tails of a lot of it, it sounds like some bad shit went down but we'll never be able to know how the company environment actually was and how things played out the way they did.
Will be interesting to see what Robert does in the future.
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If Robert's side of the story is true, especially re: his own dad... then just wow...
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My business teacher back in school told me: in money matters, dont trust anyone, not even the closest of your family
Seems like she was right 
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With so many sides of this story, I don't know what to believe. I don't know if we'll ever know the complete truth.
DreamHack has created lots of good stuff throughout the years. For example, the Swedish E-Sports Championships (across all games) have gotten pretty good reception in Sweden. But if some of what was written was correct, then I'm starting to get worried.
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On October 30 2014 03:03 sharkie wrote:My business teacher back in school told me: in money matters, dont trust anyone, not even the closest of your family Seems like she was right
I can personally attest to it.
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Dreamhack done fucked up....
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Everyone turns their back at him, and we are to believe that he's not to blame for anything ? The entire organization conspired against him for some unexplainable reason ? Come on. Eyes need to be opened, and errors admitted, before anything he says on the matter can be taken seriously.
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I mean if he "gave away" his shares to his dad and he didn't get it back, that's just screwed up.
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On October 30 2014 03:15 Apom wrote:
Everyone turns their back at him, and we are to believe that he's not to blame for anything ? The entire organization conspired against him for some unexplainable reason ? Come on. Eyes need to be opened, and errors admitted, before anything he says on the matter can be taken seriously.
He mentioned some faults, but I think he's downplaying it a bit.
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I've sure his father had his reasons, but its kinda of hard to think of one good enough reason to do this. Robert bought the shares. It was his. He entrusted it with his father. His father betrayed him. What kinda father does that? Legally his father has the right to hold on to the shares, but morally, he stole from his own son.
I don't find this story sad. I find it disgusting. I hope there is a amazing tale that justifies a father fucking up his own son "for his own good" or something. But I find it hard to believe. Unless his father thinks his son has gone crazy or some shit.
I know money can destroy families and what not, but I tend to think that only happens when the family was already not doing well, and just appeared to be doing well. I think that if money destroys a bond between father and son, that bond was already broken. Maybe Robert was naive. Maybe he could not see his real father, just like he couldn't tell how his coworkers were preparing to get rid of him.
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Alright, well... When you have the cofounder of Dreamhack get thrown this far back, bullied, and beaten by people like his own father...
This really makes me want to boycott Dreamhack.
On October 30 2014 03:15 Apom wrote:
Everyone turns their back at him, and we are to believe that he's not to blame for anything ? The entire organization conspired against him for some unexplainable reason ? Come on. Eyes need to be opened, and errors admitted, before anything he says on the matter can be taken seriously.
I must disagree to some extent. have you seen the film called The Social Network?
I strongly feel as though this is something that requires deeper investigation. If I gave my father all forms of income I have from a product that I helped to create, at least 50% of, and then he did this to me, and I had kids... I would be more than angry.
I am not saying that Robert is completely innocent, but at the same time, I think a guy as old and experienced as him wouldn't be dumb enough to make a troll-bait situation like this where dreamhack as a company could just release evidence of the bad things he has done.
EDIT: assuming he has done bad things.
I think this screenshot sums up my thoughts:
![[image loading]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/18j3sm4t0pm7zjpg.jpg)
Scenario:
Dumb Kid = (Robert Ohlen).
OP of the screenshot = The community, sense of eSports Karma (you, me and everyone else out there).
Xbox Live moderator = Dreamhack.
I don't think Robert Ohlen would be that dumb. If he's done awful things that make him worthy of being fired, that's him, and I see no reason for us to be looking at this situation without at least some venom in our eyes.
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how old is robert? he looks middle aged already. his dad must be pushing old age hard? why the heck would you steal your son's company? something else going on or his dad is a real piece of work.
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On October 30 2014 03:17 JimSocks wrote:
how old is robert? he looks middle aged already. his dad must be pushing old age hard? why the heck would you steal your son's company? something else going on or his dad is a real piece of work.
40-something
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On October 30 2014 03:17 BreAKerTV wrote:
Alright, well... When you have the cofounder of Dreamhack get thrown this far back, bullied, and beaten by people like his own father...
This really makes me want to boycott Dreamhack.
He didn't found Dreamhack, he bought Dreamhack and made a company out of it.
On October 30 2014 03:17 JimSocks wrote:
how old is robert? he looks middle aged already. his dad must be pushing old age hard? why the heck would you steal your son's company? something else going on or his dad is a real piece of work.
47 says the article.
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On October 30 2014 03:17 JimSocks wrote:
how old is robert? he looks middle aged already. his dad must be pushing old age hard? why the heck would you steal your son's company? something else going on or his dad is a real piece of work.
Why? Because of money of course.
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Wow, this reminds me of a local farmer I know, except the son was the one who screwed his father out of the shares.
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Oh my... such a incredible sad story. I can understand his emotion if it was actually his father who betrayed him in the whole situation. Everything he worked for suddenly gone... Dreamhack keeping communication behind his back until they straight up fired him... fuck that, that's disgusting. My goodwill for Dreamhack has dropped very hard.
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Looks like DH are really gonna wanna nail their next tournament.
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the sad thing is, starcraft community is pretty small now, i don't think a boycott will matter much. when his dad dies, won't robert get the shares back anyway? i can't believe a father would screw over your own kid like that. i'm mad for him. robert needs to kick his dad's ass.
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On October 30 2014 03:18 sharkie wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2014 03:17 JimSocks wrote:
how old is robert? he looks middle aged already. his dad must be pushing old age hard? why the heck would you steal your son's company? something else going on or his dad is a real piece of work. Why? Because of money of course.
Never underestimate the ability of money to ruin a family. Ever.
That being said, I wouldn't take the story at face value. The fact that all the Dream Hack employees sided with Roberts father leads me to believe there are some critical facts left out.
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"Technical, Legal Reasons" sounds a lot like a cover-up for illegal shit ...
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Sad to see such a man leave esports like that. I feel like he has really made a difference in Esports like the champagne ceremony after DH finals and just basically making DH what it is today , my favorite tournament currently in Dota and SC2.I really feel for him being cheated like that , may justice be served . But I wouldnt be surprised if Justice didnt come from the legal side of things cos we all know how the business world works and how it actually treats dishonest people
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On October 30 2014 02:58 Heyoka wrote:
It's hard for me to make heads or tails of a lot of it, it sounds like some bad shit went down but we'll never be able to know how the company environment actually was and how things played out the way they did.
Will be interesting to see what Robert does in the future.
This interview does raise oh so many questions. Clearly a lot of bad blood between different parties and to be totally cut off by people he recruited and worked alongside like that? Maybe they're all cowards like he said (since his Dad had all the power at that point), but it certainly feels like a lot of drama / backstory is being left out.
On October 30 2014 03:28 JimSocks wrote:
the sad thing is, starcraft community is pretty small now, i don't think a boycott will matter much. when his dad dies, won't robert get the shares back anyway? i can't believe a father would screw over your own kid like that. i'm mad for him. robert needs to kick his dad's ass.
This is one of the big pieces I wonder about. Did he father remarry? Does Robert have other siblings? Is there some logical reason that a man presumably in his 70's would do this to his own son who likely would just inherit everything back down the road?
I've been reading a lot of Game of Thrones but it still shocks me that a family could end up like this...
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So where is OldmanDH's response? Does Robert get the shares back in his will?
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Seems the only way we (the comunity) will know what realy happened will be if:
- DH issue a stateman about their dirty laundry (very unlikely).
- Robert talks more than the usual NDA in his contract lets him (very unlikely)
Eitherway Rob seemed on the cameras a decent guy (a bit crazy but in a good way - hope I make sense) and judging by the way DH raised in audience , esports, comunity impact in the last years he did a great job as CEO.
Power struggles exist everywhere and they usualy come in most unexpected ways.
Moral of the story for me: Keep your enemies close and your friends closer.
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I could see them doing it "for his own good" and we don't know nearly enough, still it's important to know this much. Thanks for the interview. Also on Trash Talk they discussed if there is a space for Robert in esports and if he decides to stay, the new project by TakeTV might be ideal for him. Sure it's no CEO position but he could be a great host for the "club".
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Never trust anyone who has more to gain by screwing you than helping you.
Sounds like the Old Man has had a majority stake in the company since 09. DH was doing "alright" in 09, now they are one of the most profitable E-sports organization outside of China and Korea. That's some serious incentive to fuck over his son with the climate change towards E-sports in the last 3 years.
Weird part is, a guy that can build DH into what it is, should be able to read people well enough to know what his father's priorities were before he made the deal in 09. Should have known he valued Money and Power over family.
People don't change overnight, if the old man is this type of person now, chances are he wasn't much different 5 years ago.
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On October 30 2014 03:29 Plansix wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2014 03:18 sharkie wrote:On October 30 2014 03:17 JimSocks wrote:
how old is robert? he looks middle aged already. his dad must be pushing old age hard? why the heck would you steal your son's company? something else going on or his dad is a real piece of work. Why? Because of money of course. Never underestimate the ability of money to ruin a family. Ever. That being said, I wouldn't take the story at face value. The fact that all the Dream Hack employees sided with Roberts father leads me to believe there are some critical facts left out.
This was the exact same thing I thought. I think it's important to get both sides of the story.
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edit: nm, apparently Robert Lewis clarified why he transferred his shares to his father
Him and his business partner were having a disagreement and he didn't want the partner to go after his shares... so he gave them to his father. I'm pretty sure this isn't in any ways sound reasoning from a legal perspective... but it sounds like his father has pretty aggressively screwed him over, and that Robert received some incredibly terrible advice in the past.
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I guess people are fucking scum.
Maybe I sound like an idealistic unicorn-loving greenhorn of life, but as far as I'm concerned money doesn't make a person happy. A well-led life does. Part of a well-led life is having strong relations with other humans: friends and family. People who place money and things over human beings are scum.
Ohlen's dad sounds like a fucker and it makes me sad (also the comments in this thread) that people think so little of others and are this selfish.
fuck's sake
E: if the employees sided with the father it might because he had 70% shares of the company? who are you really going to side with? the guy with the tank or the guy in front of the tank?
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On October 30 2014 03:51 majiDaniel wrote:
The only reasons for him to have handed control to his father are:
1) He was breaking his contract and could've lost his ownership with no retribution (so something like a noncompete, or entering into an illegal business deal). If he owned none of it, it can't be taken away (theoretically...)
2) He was going into rehab or similar, which could've been an easy vote to get kicked out under "loss of confidence" by the board. But loading up his father with shares would prevent that from happening. Granted... you are generally protected in most countries in this situation. At the very least you don't forfeit your current ownership in this situation.
3) Tax evasion
Either way, I'm pretty sure the reason behind Robert giving his father shares in the first place would shine a lot of light on this. If #1, his bad. If #2, his father is a terrible, terrible person. If #3, he's whining for getting screwed when doing something illegal.
Unless someone releases more information about why this took place, it's hard to really condemn anyone in this situation...
I'm not sure how shareholder agreement's are written up in Europe, but they can't be much different than in North America, so it's hard to believe there wasn't a first right of refusal for current share holders in the agreement.
This probably stems from a very poorly managed takeover when he bought the company in 2006, and sold parts to subsequent investors.
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honestly, the only guy who is always the bad guy is ohlen's dad.
like, even if it is rough, family is family, and especially a father should always hold to his son. this just seems like an extremely sad story about a mans dreams getting shattered by the greed of his father.
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It's hard to believe he just gave the shares to safe keeping and the dad just refuses to give them back. When Ohlen bought dreamhack i wonder if his father loaned the money or is somehow financially connected to dreamhack.
Sounds too much of an coincidence that the company members and his dad turn against him at the same time.
Even if the dad would like to screw over the shares, he could still appoint him as a board of director than throw him out.
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On October 30 2014 03:47 KurtyD wrote:
Never trust anyone who has more to gain by screwing you than helping you.
Sounds like the Old Man has had a majority stake in the company since 09. DH was doing "alright" in 09, now they are one of the most profitable E-sports organization outside of China and Korea. That's some serious incentive to fuck over his son with the climate change towards E-sports in the last 3 years.
Weird part is, a guy that can build DH into what it is, should be able to read people well enough to know what his father's priorities were before he made the deal in 09. Should have known he valued Money and Power over family.
People don't change overnight, if the old man is this type of person now, chances are he wasn't much different 5 years ago.
some people are good actors, and only very few peiople suspect their own dad to basically ruin your life for personal gain 
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On October 30 2014 03:53 Incognoto wrote:
I guess people are fucking scum.
Maybe I sound like an idealistic unicorn-loving greenhorn of life, but as far as I'm concerned money doesn't make a person happy. A well-led life does. Part of a well-led life is having strong relations with other humans: friends and family. People who place money and things over human beings are scum.
Ohlen's dad sounds like a fucker and it makes me sad (also the comments in this thread) that people think so little of others and are this selfish.
fuck's sake
E: if the employees sided with the father it might because he had 70% shares of the company? who are you really going to side with? the guy with the tank or the guy in front of the tank?
You should look up Boston Market in the news and what happens when all the employees back someone who isn't a majority share holder that was ousted by a hostile board of directors.
Spoiler: The board of directors lost and the previous CEO now owns the company. I don't think it is as black and white as "they were scared" of his father.
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Taking a L for dreamhack
what a shame >_<
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As I get older and still check out 18 year olds, I find the behavior of the old door greeters at Wal-Mart more understandable. This Ohlen's father thing is less surprising viewed in that light. Maturity does not come automatically with age (nor is it necessarily defined in the way I laid out, but the example still makes sense).
Still, there's more to the story, I just mean to point out that older people can surprise you.
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On October 30 2014 01:17 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
This is pretty sad to read. It's hard to really know what is going on. There are two sides to every story and from reading this it feels like more than ever the other side probably isn't going to see things the same way.
I don't think this is to be read as news or history, this is a piece on a fallen hero. Certainly the best read I had on anything regarding e-sports in quite a while, cheers.
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Money makes people do strange things. Not the first and neither the last time disputes over money tears a family apart.
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Robert will start his own company called "Hackdream"...
Man i feel for him in that interview.
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He admits himself he's not been working properly for more than six months. Hardly shocking that he's fired. If what he claims about his dealings with his father is true then that's terrible, but it's got fuck all to do with eSports. Besides, it sounds really shady to pretend to give someone your shares for "tactical, legal reasons", so I'm short on sympathy with that as well.
I somehow suspect the general public isn't getting told the full story and we never will.
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On October 30 2014 01:17 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
This is pretty sad to read. It's hard to really know what is going on. There are two sides to every story and from reading this it feels like more than ever the other side probably isn't going to see things the same way.
Oh I am quite sure they have a different view on that. But treating a long year CEO like that, not saying goodbye in a nice way is something for people who broke the law or something.
I don't know. I've experienced similar things on a smaller scale, people turning their back on you.
I hope Mister Ohlen will stay in esports and that he can sort out everything. Best wishes to him and his family.
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Ohlen is much respected by the industry. He obviously is still passionate about Dreamhack and esports, even though he indicates that was their reasoning for booting him. I expect Ohland to have another esports position in the future. Maybe it won't be as financially successful for him as his position at Dreamhack but he'll be around.
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On October 30 2014 02:58 Heyoka wrote:
It's hard for me to make heads or tails of a lot of it, it sounds like some bad shit went down but we'll never be able to know how the company environment actually was and how things played out the way they did.
Will be interesting to see what Robert does in the future.
Dreamhack 2.0 in NA
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I felt really bad when reading this article. Dunno what could have gone on at the DH HQ but damn, it sounds pretty complicated :/
Hopefully Robert Ohlen can find peace with the situation.
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On October 30 2014 04:32 Quixotic_tv wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2014 01:17 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
This is pretty sad to read. It's hard to really know what is going on. There are two sides to every story and from reading this it feels like more than ever the other side probably isn't going to see things the same way. Oh I am quite sure they have a different view on that. But treating a long year CEO like that, not saying goodbye in a nice way is something for people who broke the law or something. I don't know. I've experienced similar things on a smaller scale, people turning their back on you. I hope Mister Ohlen will stay in esports and that he can sort out everything. Best wishes to him and his family.
From the perspective of a human being, he was treated like an unwanted house guest.
From a business perspective, it sounds like his moving away from CEO wasn't as amicable as he makes it sound. If he was fighting it, they did the best thing, tear off the bandaid fast. No use in prolonging or pretending. Doesn't mean they made the right decision, but it's understandable why they chose to handle it that way.
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Does 70% of the shares give his dad like control of the company or anything?
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On October 30 2014 04:03 Beyond Magic wrote:
It's hard to believe he just gave the shares to safe keeping and the dad just refuses to give them back. When Ohlen bought dreamhack i wonder if his father loaned the money or is somehow financially connected to dreamhack.
Sounds too much of an coincidence that the company members and his dad turn against him at the same time.
Even if the dad would like to screw over the shares, he could still appoint him as a board of director than throw him out.
The interview mentioned that his Dad ended up with a 70% stake in the company. So he got at least 20% in addition to the 50% Robert gave him for 'safe keeping'. So it does seem likely his Dad was actually part of DH this entire time (or saw an opportunity to muscle in).
Personally, I think you're right and he loaned some money for the initial take-over and this all stems from a messy take-over in 2006 like KurtyD speculated.
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On October 30 2014 04:39 triforks wrote:
Does 70% of the shares give his dad like control of the company or anything?
Depends on their shareholder agreement? Whether it's ownership shares, or voting shares. Can get pretty convoluted with private companies. But most likely they have yearly shareholder meetings to (re)elect a board of directors. If he owns 70% of the companies voting shares he could pick the board of directors (CEO is a member of the board of directors for a company).
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Actually there are no reasons named for the why.
He describes the circumstances and the background
Then suddenly it happened. I mean it make sense when it was really a silent Coup d'état. But with this prehistory, I can't believe it. It is also very black&white. Definitely an article which favors Richard Lewis but it doesn't shed so much light on the case.
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As others before me have pointed out, no matter who you ask it seems the only constant is that Roberts father is a villain. This makes me really wanna hear his side of the story. After all, everyone involved should get an equal chance to explain themselves before people pass their judgement.
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Learning the lesson of never trusting anyone else with your money is always a hard one to learn. Especially when you learn it from your own family.
Best of luck to Robert, I've enjoyed what he has done to Dreamhack, and I'll be sure to never watch it again.
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All we need to know is, what could you do to cause your dad to wanna do this to you?
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On October 30 2014 04:46 triforks wrote:
All we need to know is, what could you do to cause your dad to wanna do this to you?
Devil's Advocate.
My son has become a lazy entitled cunt (excuse the verbage ). He is responsible for the livelihoods of every person who works for him at Dream Hack. Every day he decides to dick around instead of doing his job, he is putting those livelihoods in jeopardy, what if he ruins the company? What will his employee's do to support their families? Do they live pay cheque to pay cheque? Will they be out on the street? What will he think of himself if he does that and then realizes what he's done? Will it destroy him? Will he hate himself after? I'm not going to stand by and watch my son piss away everything he's worked for, and hurt all these people doing it. He might not like it now, but it's the best thing for him in the long run. And if he never forgives me, so be it, I'm his father, it's my job to protect him, even from himself.
That's one possibility? Like so many fair minded people have mentioned in this thread, 2 sides.
It is fun to speculate though.
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Well in the posting he he said he gave 50% shares (all he had) to his father, who then had 70% so it seems like his father already had 20% before. Maybe he just thought nice, so now I can do whatever I want with the company. Whatever the reason in the end, he seemed to have been involved before all this "giving shares away" thing started.
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On October 30 2014 03:31 Otolia wrote:
"Technical, Legal Reasons" sounds a lot like a cover-up for illegal shit ...
Yeah I feel like until we have a clear explanation for this, I have trouble believe that he simply got screwed over by everyone for no apparent reason. There are very few technical or legal reasons I can think of that would require such a transfer without an official contract. I mean maybe it could be a simple as evading taxes, in which case his dad is a dick, but I still think this sounds incredibly shady...
Edit: Just saw majidaniel's post about 3 possibilities for the share transfer. Definitely need more clarity on the original transfer, would explain a lot about what is currently going on.
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On October 30 2014 04:53 KurtyD wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2014 04:46 triforks wrote:
All we need to know is, what could you do to cause your dad to wanna do this to you? Devil's Advocate. My son has become a lazy entitled cunt (excuse the verbage ). He is responsible for the livelihoods of every person who works for him at Dream Hack. Every day he decides to dick around instead of doing his job, he is putting those livelihoods in jeopardy, what if he ruins the company? What will his employee's do to support their families? Do they live pay cheque to pay cheque? Will they be out on the street? What will he think of himself if he does that and then realizes what he's done? Will it destroy him? Will he hate himself after? I'm not going to stand by and watch my son piss away everything he's worked for, and hurt all these people doing it. He might not like it now, but it's the best thing for him in the long run. And if he never forgives me, so be it, I'm his father, it's my job to protect him, even from himself. That's one possibility? Like so many fair minded people have mentioned in this thread, 2 sides. It is fun to speculate though.
They are his shares and it's his right to do with them what he wants.
Being a father does not allow you to steal from your son
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Everyone's waiting patiently to see the new Dreamhack ceremony...
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On October 30 2014 05:27 sharkie wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2014 04:53 KurtyD wrote:On October 30 2014 04:46 triforks wrote:
All we need to know is, what could you do to cause your dad to wanna do this to you? Devil's Advocate. My son has become a lazy entitled cunt (excuse the verbage ). He is responsible for the livelihoods of every person who works for him at Dream Hack. Every day he decides to dick around instead of doing his job, he is putting those livelihoods in jeopardy, what if he ruins the company? What will his employee's do to support their families? Do they live pay cheque to pay cheque? Will they be out on the street? What will he think of himself if he does that and then realizes what he's done? Will it destroy him? Will he hate himself after? I'm not going to stand by and watch my son piss away everything he's worked for, and hurt all these people doing it. He might not like it now, but it's the best thing for him in the long run. And if he never forgives me, so be it, I'm his father, it's my job to protect him, even from himself. That's one possibility? Like so many fair minded people have mentioned in this thread, 2 sides. It is fun to speculate though. They are his shares and it's his right to do with them what he wants. Being a father does not allow you to steal from your son
It's not stealing if the guy gave it to you three years ago :-/
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I find it very funny how people say "can't be true, because those ppl (his father, other dreamhack staff) wouldn't have a reason for doing things in such a way", but to me the reason is very very obvious and the most frequent and the most likely reason for such betrayals: Money. Nothing more, nothing less. If you think a father would never stab a knife in the back of his son just for money, you are not familiar enough with this culture. And actually i mean that literally. I believe most fathers would kill their son if the offer is high enough. How many times a day on this world you think people formely close to each other betray their beloved? Often enought for this stroy to be plausible...
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Giving away your shares? Wtf is that. The reason for giving them away doesn't make any sense at all either. What ever is happening right now at this moment, no matter how fucked up his father/DH/board/anyone is, it was Robert's decision to give the shares away, and now he is paying the price. Unbelievable.
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On October 30 2014 05:27 sharkie wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2014 04:53 KurtyD wrote:On October 30 2014 04:46 triforks wrote:
All we need to know is, what could you do to cause your dad to wanna do this to you? Devil's Advocate. My son has become a lazy entitled cunt (excuse the verbage ). He is responsible for the livelihoods of every person who works for him at Dream Hack. Every day he decides to dick around instead of doing his job, he is putting those livelihoods in jeopardy, what if he ruins the company? What will his employee's do to support their families? Do they live pay cheque to pay cheque? Will they be out on the street? What will he think of himself if he does that and then realizes what he's done? Will it destroy him? Will he hate himself after? I'm not going to stand by and watch my son piss away everything he's worked for, and hurt all these people doing it. He might not like it now, but it's the best thing for him in the long run. And if he never forgives me, so be it, I'm his father, it's my job to protect him, even from himself. That's one possibility? Like so many fair minded people have mentioned in this thread, 2 sides. It is fun to speculate though. They are his shares and it's his right to do with them what he wants. Being a father does not allow you to steal from your son
We aren't talking about right and wrong. We are talking about why his Father might have done what he did.
But on the topic of right and wrong, it's hard to imagine that there is no scenario on this planet that would make his father believe he was doing the right thing for his son.
Right and wrong are too subjective. I believe there is a better than 50% chance that in this scenario, all parties believe they are doing the "right" thing.
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Really sad that his dad has no family values whatsoever. Idk what he does. He obviously has skill in Esports. Perhaps there are greener pastures in ESL or Blizzard or America. Him leaving would be a great shame.
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Canada16217 Posts
On October 30 2014 03:15 Apom wrote:
Everyone turns their back at him, and we are to believe that he's not to blame for anything ? The entire organization conspired against him for some unexplainable reason ? Come on. Eyes need to be opened, and errors admitted, before anything he says on the matter can be taken seriously.
Money is everything at least for some people.
In these situations you'll never get the whole story most likely.
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On October 30 2014 05:27 sharkie wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2014 04:53 KurtyD wrote:On October 30 2014 04:46 triforks wrote:
All we need to know is, what could you do to cause your dad to wanna do this to you? Devil's Advocate. My son has become a lazy entitled cunt (excuse the verbage ). He is responsible for the livelihoods of every person who works for him at Dream Hack. Every day he decides to dick around instead of doing his job, he is putting those livelihoods in jeopardy, what if he ruins the company? What will his employee's do to support their families? Do they live pay cheque to pay cheque? Will they be out on the street? What will he think of himself if he does that and then realizes what he's done? Will it destroy him? Will he hate himself after? I'm not going to stand by and watch my son piss away everything he's worked for, and hurt all these people doing it. He might not like it now, but it's the best thing for him in the long run. And if he never forgives me, so be it, I'm his father, it's my job to protect him, even from himself. That's one possibility? Like so many fair minded people have mentioned in this thread, 2 sides. It is fun to speculate though. They are his shares and it's his right to do with them what he wants. Being a father does not allow you to steal from your son
Technically, they are not. He took a risk by signing his shares over to his father. His father is the legal and rightful owner of the shares. If there was some unwritten(aka, terrible plan) that he would return them upon request, that would be up to a court to decide if that agreement was binding. But no crime was committed here, ei theft.(as far as we know)
And I agree with KurtyD that it is a possibility and I don't agree with the idea that people "can do whatever they want with their stuff, regardless of who gets hurt".
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Kinda feels like Robert got very fucked.
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Poland3748 Posts
On October 30 2014 01:17 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
This is pretty sad to read. It's hard to really know what is going on. There are two sides to every story and from reading this it feels like more than ever the other side probably isn't going to see things the same way.
Yes, but it's hard to imagine situation when you relieve a CEO of a company who is actually close to it without offering him a position at the board. It's such a natural move to me. You can't just explain it with lack of faith because lack of faith doesn't take away his experience and personal contacts which I imagine are quite an asset for the company.
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"Before I die I want to make a Dreamhack U.S."
-Robert Ohlen revealing a prophecy to Hotbid in their 2013 interview.
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This is probably a money thing with millions of dollars involved. What a spineless pig his father is. I guess you really can't trust anyone with money.
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Anyone else want to make his dad's life and the lives of the dreamhack dicks into a living hell? I sure do.
On October 30 2014 01:17 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
This is pretty sad to read. It's hard to really know what is going on. There are two sides to every story and from reading this it feels like more than ever the other side probably isn't going to see things the same way.
Saying there are two sides to every story is a real cop out. Sure there are, but one side is usually about money and control.
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well even as you copy pasted everything interesting i will anway read it there. comon be fair, if you use others content than give him the clicks he deserves.
still usa inside job to get him kicked.
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My honest opinion: I knew Robert Ohlen as the guy who handed Taeja the champaign and from all the things he posted on twitter, apearing as the victim who got fucked for whatever reason, I might leave it like that. People might have screwed him up or they might not have, but why drag this war onto Twitter/Facebook and whatnot, be a man and settle it like a man.
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And here I was, after reading the title, thinking I must have glanced at the Diablo III section where a representative of Blizzard was admitting the imba Marauder 6 set bonus for DHs was an idea concocted while severely intoxicated.
This will be good to read though. I'll be back for it later. 
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This sounds like an honest interview, while the Dreamhack annoucement sounded shady and evasive (fake transparency). The answer for "Is there an internal power struggle within DreamHack?" is no. That means either Ohlen invented a whole story about his shares, his father and relationship with co-workers (sounds unlikely) or DH is hiding some stuff.
No proof, cannot be 100% sure, cannot do anything about it... but for now i believe Robert Ohlen was f*cked.
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wow sounds like his dad really fucked him along with some of the staff who really knows thou 1 interview is usually an exaggerated testimony of what really happened but all in all i can say i don't think DH did the right thing just firing him it doesn't sound like he did anything truly wrong to go from CEO to nothing.
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yeah it sounds terrible, even more so since we all sort of know Robert. But those "tactical, legal reasons"...
And the lack of reasoning for the other side... I don't know. Its like a conspiracy theory given from the side of a shady character whom you don't trust but still sympathize with.
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Dad sounds like a massive Dbag. Do we know that dad didn't sell the shares to the other partner behind Robert's back or something? Like the reason he can't give them shares back is he cashed them out and there's nothing to give anymore?
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His dad is 70? Getting return via inheritance doesn't seem expedient - plus he could be left out of the will.
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Families fighting over money is always depressing... Sad but I'm sure Robert will bounce back somehow, hopefully in esports.
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On October 30 2014 01:07 kappadevin wrote:
Who knows really though? Maybe Dreamhack will actually get better now that he's been removed from the picture. Obviously Dreamhack had their reasons to get rid of him, and even if he felt that it was done unfairly, he still got five years to run the show at one of the biggest esports companies on the planet.
I don't think the discussion have ever been whether or not this will turn out good or bad for DreamHack as a organisation.
The reason this is a discussion is because of the circumstances Robert was relieved under. Even Robert himself was prepared to step down.
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Is there no DH (former) employee who can shed more light on the situation? Going by this interview it sounds like his father should never see his grandchildren again, but with all the employees siding with his dad, I think we should really know more about this before judging.
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On October 30 2014 09:23 aseq wrote:
Is there no DH (former) employee who can shed more light on the situation? Going by this interview it sounds like his father should never see his grandchildren again, but with all the employees siding with his dad, I think we should really know more about this before judging.
I don't think Robert has children, no?
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illsick
United States1770 Posts
When I think of DH, I think of Robert. Almost in similar fashion with the Dallas Mavericks and Mark Cuban.
Robert had a "cool-old-guy" image which was awesome to have for a LAN scene revolved around a young-ish crowd. It seemed like he "get's it" unlike a certain NA counterpart.
I'm sad he's not going to be involved with DH anymore.
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On October 30 2014 09:31 Torte de Lini wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2014 09:23 aseq wrote:
Is there no DH (former) employee who can shed more light on the situation? Going by this interview it sounds like his father should never see his grandchildren again, but with all the employees siding with his dad, I think we should really know more about this before judging. I don't think Robert has children, no?
According to the article either him or his wife have 4 kids
"His wife is a student at the London School of Economics and he has four children to support."
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On October 30 2014 06:43 Oakenshield wrote:
"Before I die I want to make a Dreamhack U.S."
-Robert Ohlen revealing a prophecy to Hotbid in their 2013 interview.
dun dun DUN
I doubt it means anything but the possibility of him working with MLG in the future against his former employer is pretty funny.
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On October 30 2014 09:35 OuchyDathurts wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2014 09:31 Torte de Lini wrote:On October 30 2014 09:23 aseq wrote:
Is there no DH (former) employee who can shed more light on the situation? Going by this interview it sounds like his father should never see his grandchildren again, but with all the employees siding with his dad, I think we should really know more about this before judging. I don't think Robert has children, no? According to the article either him or his wife have 4 kids "His wife is a student at the London School of Economics and he has four children to support."
Wowzers.
Coming from a family four, that shit's rough!
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On October 30 2014 09:50 Heyoka wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2014 06:43 Oakenshield wrote:
"Before I die I want to make a Dreamhack U.S."
-Robert Ohlen revealing a prophecy to Hotbid in their 2013 interview. dun dun DUNhttps://twitter.com/MLGSundance/status/527578526963466240I doubt it means anything but the possibility of him working with MLG in the future against his former employer is pretty funny.
I'd be very surprised if this worked out for a variety of reasons.
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HomeStory is where its at people.
TakeTV ftw!!
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It's still hard to decipher what the hell really happened lol.
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I'm guessing dreamhack is worth millions, tens of millions, maybe more?
So his father better have some damn good reasons for withholding 50% of the shares, other than his opinion about his son. Maybe not legally, but morally he's basically stealing millions of dollars.
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On October 30 2014 11:04 igotmyown wrote:
I'm guessing dreamhack is worth millions, tens of millions, maybe more?
So his father better have some damn good reasons for withholding 50% of the shares, other than his opinion about his son. Maybe not legally, but morally he's basically stealing millions of dollars.
Well but you also have to see the other side. Where did he get the money to buy 50% of DH in the first place? If his dad gave him the money for it, it's not as much as stealing as is getting it back. Not saying this is what happened and that I agree with the movement either way, just a thought. My father got the money to buy his/my house from his father, and he just gave him the money no strings attached, but it's in his right to ask for the money back.
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It's hard to tell what will really happen to him now.
This kind of financial strain on a family can create conflict between a man and his wife.
But if conflict doesn't destroy their relationship, it will make it stronger.
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I really hope that Robert finds a way to stay in esports, as long as he can make enough to support his family. People like him and Carmac really help a tournament have a unique personality.
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So basically, Robert gave away all his shares and therefore his legal ownership of DH to his father for free. He calls it for "tactical, legal" reasons, but for all legal reasons, he lost DH right then and there regardless of his father's motivations in the future, with no leverage to hold nor collateral from his father, all because he had some "tacit understanding".
In any other (rest) business, this move is at best comical and at worst suicidal.
As much he insists that DH and his father fucked him over, it only happened because he fucked himself over first. And this is just only knowing his side of the story. Have to wonder his father's and DH's side of the story is.
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On October 30 2014 15:27 BirdKiller wrote:
So basically, Robert gave away all his shares and therefore his legal ownership of DH to his father for free. He calls it for "tactical, legal" reasons, but for all legal reasons, he lost DH right then and there regardless of his father's motivations in the future, with no leverage to hold nor collateral from his father, all because he had some "tacit understanding".
In any other (rest) business, this move is at best comical and at worst suicidal.
As much he insists that DH and his father fucked him over, it only happened because he fucked himself over first. And this is just only knowing his side of the story. Have to wonder his father's and DH's side of the story is.
If fucking youself equals trusting the guy that brought you into the world, then you're right. But only then.
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On October 30 2014 09:31 Torte de Lini wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2014 09:23 aseq wrote:
Is there no DH (former) employee who can shed more light on the situation? Going by this interview it sounds like his father should never see his grandchildren again, but with all the employees siding with his dad, I think we should really know more about this before judging. I don't think Robert has children, no?
4 of them.
And a wife
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I find it funny how he says he relates to The Sopranos now more than ever. With Tony Soprano ? I would so like to hear the truth in this matter, but i'm guessing that will never happen.
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Not really interested in more drama TBH, just hope everything works out for the better.
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On October 30 2014 16:51 TheRidd wrote:
I find it funny how he says he relates to The Sopranos now more than ever. With Tony Soprano ? I would so like to hear the truth in this matter, but i'm guessing that will never happen.
That's actually a sign that he might be losing it though. Honestly who do you trust. The guy who just lost everything and says he was screwed by everyone? Or the organization which doesn't want to lose face over something that's just business. If you worked for Dreamhack, do you trust a CEO who gives up all his power to protect anyone including yourself? No. Basically...one perspective is that Robert fucked himself. What is "tactical legal reasons"? What happened to lawyers? Why not transfer it to his wife? Nothing really makes sense yet but everyone wants to take sides.
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I'd be very reluctant to accept this account at face value since no one in it seems to be acting rationally. Giving away shares? Screwing over your own son without apparent reason?
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It's a preview to the Game of Thrones new season
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On October 30 2014 18:31 icystorage wrote:
It's a preview to the Game of Thrones new season
I think there is more senseless violence here than in GoT... But hopefully less blood.
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There are too many logical leaps of faith and information holes in this story to place much credence in his account of the story. The crux of his tale lies in these declarations: a) Mr. Ohlen transfers the entirety of his holdings to his father... for reasons entirely undisclosed. b) His father refuses to return these shares to him... out of pure greed. c) The Dreamhack staff unilaterally withdraws their support of Mr. Ohlen... again, without reason.
I'm not condemning Mr. Ohlen by any means, but there is so much intentional withholding of vital details, and his telling is so one-sided and lacking in nuance, it's very difficult to attach a large amount of credibility to what he is saying. For most logical, rational people, accounts that are essentially extremely lopsided demonizations of another party should always ring some alarm bells.
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On October 30 2014 18:37 pretensile wrote:
There are too many logical leaps of faith and information holes in this story to place much credence in his account of the story. The crux of his tale lies in these declarations: a) Mr. Ohlen transfers the entirety of his holdings to his father... for reasons entirely undisclosed. b) His father refuses to return these shares to him... out of pure greed. c) The Dreamhack staff unilaterally withdraws their support of Mr. Ohlen... again, without reason.
I'm not condemning Mr. Ohlen by any means, but there is so much intentional withholding of vital details, and his telling is so one-sided and lacking in nuance, it's very difficult to attach a large amount of credibility to what he is saying. For most logical, rational people, accounts that are essentially extremely lopsided demonizations of another party should always ring some alarm bells.
I don't agree. So you're saying greed/money is not a reason at b)? It's the biggest reason for a lot of bad shit happening in the world. And c) the reason is probably be job security if the shareholder wants his way vs the guy who's getting fired.
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On October 30 2014 16:20 Iplaythings wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2014 09:31 Torte de Lini wrote:On October 30 2014 09:23 aseq wrote:
Is there no DH (former) employee who can shed more light on the situation? Going by this interview it sounds like his father should never see his grandchildren again, but with all the employees siding with his dad, I think we should really know more about this before judging. I don't think Robert has children, no? 4 of them. And a wife
You made it sound like 5 kids to support.
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On October 30 2014 18:37 pretensile wrote:
There are too many logical leaps of faith and information holes in this story to place much credence in his account of the story. The crux of his tale lies in these declarations: a) Mr. Ohlen transfers the entirety of his holdings to his father... for reasons entirely undisclosed. b) His father refuses to return these shares to him... out of pure greed. c) The Dreamhack staff unilaterally withdraws their support of Mr. Ohlen... again, without reason.
I'm not condemning Mr. Ohlen by any means, but there is so much intentional withholding of vital details, and his telling is so one-sided and lacking in nuance, it's very difficult to attach a large amount of credibility to what he is saying. For most logical, rational people, accounts that are essentially extremely lopsided demonizations of another party should always ring some alarm bells.
There is a Swedish news article about the mess from 2010 when David Garpenståhl, the previous CEO, was ousted from the company. This article is 3 years old though, no idea how it turned out.
Short breakdown of the article:
In the article David Garpenståhl says he was ousted because of a difference between him and Robert Ohléns father, Bernt Ohlén over a stock market listing.
Dreamhack sued Garpenståhl for a transaction of 500.000 SEK to his account and Garpenståhl sued Bernt Ohlén for sellings Garpenståhls shares (50 %) for 1 krona.
The person that bought the shares for 1 krona sat on the board of both Dreamhack and the Parent company, Quantum Holding.
In the first instance of Swedish court it was ruled that this was wrong and the shares should be returned to Garpenståhl, but by this time a new issue of stocks had taken place leaving Garpenståhl with 6 % of the shares and Bernt Ohlén with the majority.
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I'm pretty sure Garpenståhl is laughing at this right now
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wow ohlen's dad. way to be a sad piece of shit.
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On October 30 2014 19:34 Arevall wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2014 18:37 pretensile wrote:
There are too many logical leaps of faith and information holes in this story to place much credence in his account of the story. The crux of his tale lies in these declarations: a) Mr. Ohlen transfers the entirety of his holdings to his father... for reasons entirely undisclosed. b) His father refuses to return these shares to him... out of pure greed. c) The Dreamhack staff unilaterally withdraws their support of Mr. Ohlen... again, without reason.
I'm not condemning Mr. Ohlen by any means, but there is so much intentional withholding of vital details, and his telling is so one-sided and lacking in nuance, it's very difficult to attach a large amount of credibility to what he is saying. For most logical, rational people, accounts that are essentially extremely lopsided demonizations of another party should always ring some alarm bells. Dreamhack sued Garpenståhl for a transaction of 500.000 SEK to his account and Garpenståhl sued Bernt Ohlén for sellings Garpenståhls shares (50 %) for 1 krona.
Im confused, how can Bernt Ohlên sell shares owned by Garpenståhl?
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Thanks for the interview Richard. Unfortunate for just about everybody that this happened.
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On October 30 2014 11:29 misirlou wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2014 11:04 igotmyown wrote:
I'm guessing dreamhack is worth millions, tens of millions, maybe more?
So his father better have some damn good reasons for withholding 50% of the shares, other than his opinion about his son. Maybe not legally, but morally he's basically stealing millions of dollars. Well but you also have to see the other side. Where did he get the money to buy 50% of DH in the first place? If his dad gave him the money for it, it's not as much as stealing as is getting it back. Not saying this is what happened and that I agree with the movement either way, just a thought. My father got the money to buy his/my house from his father, and he just gave him the money no strings attached, but it's in his right to ask for the money back.
I don't think Dreamhack was worth a lot when Robert Ohlén purchased it.
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Some interesting tidbits from the Article that might somewhat mitigate the circumstances. Along with the whole Garpenståhl story, the Ohlen family (i.e. the father) pushed in 5,1 Million Sek (~800 000 USD at the time). So the father has pushed in a lot of money to make the shares worth more.
Now I still think its a very weird thing for a father to do to his son, but I suppose there may be other explanations as well.
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On October 30 2014 18:37 pretensile wrote:
There are too many logical leaps of faith and information holes in this story to place much credence in his account of the story. The crux of his tale lies in these declarations: a) Mr. Ohlen transfers the entirety of his holdings to his father... for reasons entirely undisclosed. b) His father refuses to return these shares to him... out of pure greed. c) The Dreamhack staff unilaterally withdraws their support of Mr. Ohlen... again, without reason.
I'm not condemning Mr. Ohlen by any means, but there is so much intentional withholding of vital details, and his telling is so one-sided and lacking in nuance, it's very difficult to attach a large amount of credibility to what he is saying. For most logical, rational people, accounts that are essentially extremely lopsided demonizations of another party should always ring some alarm bells.
C really isn't that hard to understand. It's a power struggle between Robert Ohlen and his Dad. DH was caught in the middle and didn't resist the man with the power (ie - the guy with 70% shares and power to replace every member of the board at will apparently).
For people talking about the Dad doing this out of greed, another big reason could be ego. What father isn't critical of how their son does things? Maybe he wanted to be the guy in power and show off his own chops? Would be just as sad as if he did it for greed, but it's another age-old reason that tears families apart.
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On October 31 2014 02:45 Wuster wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2014 18:37 pretensile wrote:
There are too many logical leaps of faith and information holes in this story to place much credence in his account of the story. The crux of his tale lies in these declarations: a) Mr. Ohlen transfers the entirety of his holdings to his father... for reasons entirely undisclosed. b) His father refuses to return these shares to him... out of pure greed. c) The Dreamhack staff unilaterally withdraws their support of Mr. Ohlen... again, without reason.
I'm not condemning Mr. Ohlen by any means, but there is so much intentional withholding of vital details, and his telling is so one-sided and lacking in nuance, it's very difficult to attach a large amount of credibility to what he is saying. For most logical, rational people, accounts that are essentially extremely lopsided demonizations of another party should always ring some alarm bells. C really isn't that hard to understand. It's a power struggle between Robert Ohlen and his Dad. DH was caught in the middle and didn't resist the man with the power (ie - the guy with 70% shares and power to replace every member of the board at will apparently). For people talking about the Dad doing this out of greed, another big reason could be ego. What father isn't critical of how their son does things? Maybe he wanted to be the guy in power and show off his own chops? Would be just as sad as if he did it for greed, but it's another age-old reason that tears families apart.
Robert was prolly doing illegal thigns and got found out by the senior. So better to jes kick him out rather than expose him. After all from all source, the senior is not even actively involved in management so for him to kick out robert, the staff must have found out something and reported it.
Also the age old reason for family feud is usually the younger conning the elder (shares money given yet no return) not the other round.
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Can someone clear up again what the fuzz about the 50% of the shares is in the first place? It sounds a little shady to begin with that Robert Ohlen presumably transferred 50% of the company to his father because he wanted to avoid paying out the guy they ousted themselves before.
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Robert is tyrone Lancaster. And his dad tywin just locked him up. Now Tyrone must go to mlg to save himself from the clutches of dreamhack.
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On October 31 2014 04:36 Nyxisto wrote:
Can someone clear up again what the fuzz about the 50% of the shares is in the first place? It sounds a little shady to begin with that Robert Ohlen presumably transferred 50% of the company to his father because he wanted to avoid paying out the guy they ousted themselves before.
My best guess since it was legal the company issued new shares. ie the court did require dh to return the shares however the company then issued new shares quickly to make the original shares to be a way smaller %. the senior reportedly pumped in 800,000 USD during that time which i assume to be for the new controlling shares. The senior prolly do not want to dump in money for nothing thus required 50% of the shares which might even be overvalue (this was during the europe financial crisis).
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On October 30 2014 01:07 kappadevin wrote:
Who knows really though? Maybe Dreamhack will actually get better now that he's been removed from the picture. Obviously Dreamhack had their reasons to get rid of him, and even if he felt that it was done unfairly, he still got five years to run the show at one of the biggest esports companies on the planet.
Plansix wrote:
That is pretty sad, but I am sure his father had his own reasons for what he did. Removing people from their job is hard, especially in the era of twitter. I'm sure the man will be fine, but not a way I would want to go out.
well sometimes, but sadly, greed alone is the reason. i wouldn't be surprised if his business partners/father just wanted more money and decided to shit all over him for it.
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Ohlen: Hey dad, can you watch my shares for a week?
Dad: Sure son! Just drop them off at the front door when they're ready.
Ohlen: You can't just drop shares off in front of a door, Dad. You need to take care of them and show them love and care. Can you do that for me? Can you, Dad?
Dad: Yes, yes, son, don't worry! They'll be fine when you get back.
THREE WEEKS LATER...
Ohlen: AUGGGGHHHHHHH!!! DAD, WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY SHARES!?
Dad: Your friend David came by and said he'd pick them up for you.
Ohlen: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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Grab the pitchforks! His dad's a piece of sh*t! Hang him by the balls!
I like to jump on the bandwagon to gain popularity on the internet, despite the fact that all sides of the story have yet to be released.
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I hope people will do something at DHW14 to show how bad this is, Robert made dreamhack to a major player in the Esport world and something me, as a Swede could be proud of, well, not anymore and I will not attend anymore DH events from now on, and will only watch streams if it is not DH themself.
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On October 31 2014 23:16 pekkasteele wrote:
I hope people will do something at DHW14 to show how bad this is, Robert made dreamhack to a major player in the Esport world and something me, as a Swede could be proud of, well, not anymore and I will not attend anymore DH events from now on, and will only watch streams if it is not DH themself.
I don't get this logic. DH was big before he became CEO. The events were just as good. Esports just has more money now in general than they did then. Which means DH also grew with the rest of the scene.
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On November 01 2014 04:04 Yurie wrote:Show nested quote +On October 31 2014 23:16 pekkasteele wrote:
I hope people will do something at DHW14 to show how bad this is, Robert made dreamhack to a major player in the Esport world and something me, as a Swede could be proud of, well, not anymore and I will not attend anymore DH events from now on, and will only watch streams if it is not DH themself. I don't get this logic. DH was big before he became CEO. The events were just as good. Esports just has more money now in general than they did then. Which means DH also grew with the rest of the scene.
Yes DH had 2 great events each year before Robert joined them, when he left? He made a great Swedish event and organisation to a great European organisation, with multiple events in Valencia and Bukarest, one in Moscow and one planned for Paris. He had big plans and the guts to execute them. If he was not there, sure the MIGHT have done the same, no one know. Or they might just still be a great Swedish organisation.
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EPT
